Author, Blogger, Pastor's Wife

True Story

About once a week, I read a blog post by an “indie” writer who takes time out of their busy lives to shamelessly beg readers for reviews, tweets, recommendations, and shares. I always groan a little when I see these bits of self-promotion, thinking, “You’d be better off spending that energy WRITING ANOTHER BOOK.” What they make selling their one book likely exceeds what I make selling my nineteen books, so clearly, they know something I don’t. I’m pretty sure that it’s all about marketing, which is something that I hate. Yes, I hate marketing my work. Not because I don’t think people will enjoy it, but because I feel like a slimy, shady salesman hitting people up for reviews, tweets, recommendations, and shares. I don’t want to be that guy, y’all. I don’t want to do it.

That said (ahem), let me tell you a true story.

The other day, I read a book. It was a self-published, indie book that I got for free. (Always a good deal.) I’d never heard of the author before, but the book was advertised as clean chick lit, so I started reading it with high hopes.

My hopes were totally exceeded. It was so good that I read the whole thing in one sitting, staying up way later than I should have, alternately laughing out loud and crying, saying “awwwww” more than a dozen times because it was sooooo good.

When I finished, I turned off my Kindle and forgot all about it.

No. No, I didn’t.

I went over to Amazon and wrote a review. (What a concept, right?) I copied that review and went over to Goodreads, where I posted it there as well. I went to the author’s page on Facebook and liked it. I saw that she has two other books, and I put them both on my reading list. I went over and checked out her blog. I sent messages to a couple of friends, telling them, “Hey, I just read this book, and it was so cute!”

It took me all of five minutes to do all of that. That’s it.

What’s my point with all of this? It doesn’t take a whole lot of time or effort to help your favorite, small beans, self-published, sappy sweet, clean chick lit author (ahem) market her books. If you enjoy a book (ANY book, traditionally published or not), please remember that a review, a tweet, a recommendation, or a share is always greatly appreciated.

And now, I need to go take a shower so that I don’t feel so slimy. Ha, ha! Happy reading, friends!